Terraforming Mars

We did get in a few games in July....Friday, 5 July 2019On this first Friday of July our friend Laura came over for the evening and played Terraforming Mars with us. Finnegan even joined in!We played on the Hellas board and... there wasn't a lot of ON BOARD developments - compared to some of our games! I can't believe how few cities there were! Amanda didn't have a single one!I played Helion (Yellow) and just BARELY squeaked out a win in a very, VERY close game!! I took the Diversifier Milestone and the Magnate Prize (which I'd sponsored) and second place in the Space Baron prize with a total of 53 points.Laura was second with 52 points! She had been playing Tharsis Republic (Black) and had taken the Polar Explorer Milestone and was in a three-way tie for second in the Cultivator Prize along with Amanda and Finnegan. Keira had won the prize. In fact, I was the ONLY one who didn't get any points for the Cultivator prize!?Keira (Ecoline - Green) and Amanda (Phololog - Red) were tied for third with 50 points eac

April games bring May... ?Wow... Where did April go!? It feels like it just FLEW by!!! Here are the games we played through the month...Monday, 1 April 2019We kicked off April with a game of Terraforming Mars. We played on the Elysium board. I played Terractor, Amanda played the Mining Guild, Finnegan played Phobolog, and The Girl played Thorgate.This was a lower scoring game than some of our other recent games. Not sure why? Everyone rushing to Terraform the damned planet and grab as many Terraforming points as fast as possible…?Amanda took Ecologist and Tychoon milestones, I took first for Celebrity Award, Finnegan took second for Celebrity Award, and The Girl took Specialist Milestone - but only because she went before me that turn! Had I gone first that turn, we would have ended up tied for second one point behind Amanda. As it was The Girl won with 69 points, Amanda was second with 65, I had 59 and Finnegan had 44.Wednesday, 3 April 2019My friend Kurtis came over for supper and a game. I made some

In March, we played a few games....Friday, 1 March 2019The first of March was a Friday, and therefore Family game night. As we hadn’t gotten to play a game on my birthday, I chose to play Terraforming Mars. This was our fifth play of it so far this year (half way to 10!). While I (and probably Amanda) are far from tiring of this game, I think the kids are… well… interested in playing other things…?This evening we played with the Hellas board. My stuff at the end of the game.Amanda Plante played Ecoline, I tried out Credicor, The Girl played the Tharsis Republic, and Finnegan played Inventrix. I felt like the game went crazy quick – like I was barely getting going… and it was all over!? I did managed to take the Rim Settler milestone and first for the Space Baron Award and tied for second in the Magnate Award. Amanda took the Tactician and Polar Explorer Milestones and first for both the Magnate and Cultivator awards. Finnegan came in second for the Space Baron, Magnate, and Cultivator awards.Amanda won with a

We did play a LOT of games this month...Friday, 1 February 2019Friday night is Family game night and this first Friday of February Finnegan took us through the second scenario in his narrative campaign for Sentinels of the Multiverse. In the last game, we defended the Freedom tower from Ambuscade. Having defeated him, we discovered he had attacked the building at the behest of Baron Blade who wanted him to try and steal some piece of technology that Baron Blade wanted to use for some nefarious purpose. And so it was decided we must go and put a stop to Baron Blade, but to do that we would have to travel to space…. But how to do that? Well, apparently, the Maerynians have a few laying around, so we travelled to the Maerynian Refuge to see if we could borrow one… but when we got there AKASH’BUTA showed up and wreaked havoc upon the island… we had to put a stop to that!And put a stop to it we did! We were a little concerned when Finnegan put out the villain card and it had TWO HUNDRED hit points on it!? Yowza! B

We got in a few games over the holidaze in December, and kind of tried to keep the ball rolling into the new year...Tuesday, 1 January 2019We started the new year off with a bang by having Kurtis and Brent over to play a few games.To start off Kurtis, Brent, Amanda and I played a game of Nations. I played Rome, Amanda played Greece, Kurtis played Egypt, and Brent played Persia.This was a bit of a departure from the last few games I’ve played where I played China and tried to focus on Stability and Grain production and more or less ignore military and wars and stuff and grow population as much as possible to get piles of meeples on industrial age buildings at the end of the game for loads of victory points.It hasn’t worked. I always end up going last (because military determines turn order) and get nothing good and never, EVER get to use my special ability (first to pass gain extra grain…)So, I thought I’d go a different direction and do military….It didn’t really work out either…There were startlingly few bui

Having had a quick look back at 2018, it's time to make some plans for 2019. Now, these aren't written in stone plans... they're kind of like the Pirates Code: "They're more like... 'guidelines'".Board GamesChallengesFirst off, last years challenge was ill-defined and we just picked games we wanted to play and didn't really consult the rest of the family and it ended up being a mix of games I wanted to play with the family and games I wanted to play, but probably not with the family... so I'm kind of separating things into two separate challenges...10x10 Family challengeThese are 10 games we've agreed to as a family to play TOGETHER at least TEN times in the next year:Warhammer Quest: Blackstone FortressTerraforming MarsSplendorCentury: Golem EditionCastles of BurgundyShadowrun: CrossfireSentinels of the MultiverseRace for the GalaxyAbyssPower Grid DeluxePersonal ChallengesThese are a few more boardgames I'D like to play over the next year - some I might play with the family, others I might play with others..

December got off to a slow start... Then slowed down a bit more... and then picked up again over the holidaze... but not so much as in previous years (we watched a lot of movies this month...).Monday, 3 December 2018 - Wrath & GloryI was getting excited about the "imminent" release of Wrath & Glory (STILL WAITING!), and so decided to run Blessings Unheralded (the Free PRG Day quick-start rules and introductory adventure) again - for a different group of players.I ran it for a bunch of guys from the local 40K league. While the last group approached he'd things from a completely different way than the authors intended... These guys when in a completely different direction - also apparently not envisioned by the authors. Ultimately they saved the day... sort of... and were much quicker about it. Being regular 40K players - who have read a lot of the fluff - they picked up on stuff that the other group would have had no idea about. Fun bunch of guys - kept me on my toes...Tuesday, 4 December 2018Not a gam